Has anyone ever tried charcoal instead of hay in the Wayne Keith “hay filter”?
Hi Pete; I thought of that some time ago. I thought we could use the charcoal to absorb moisture and cool the gas down. It must have been on Yahoo Charcoal gasifier because I went through my posts on DOW. End result was, they convinced me it would not act as cooling pipes and cool the gas down. It would absorb moisture, but it would not clean the ash/soot out of the gas. I hope others will chime in on this. My memory is not good so I don’t know exactly why it wasn’t a good idea.TomC
No I never tried charcoal but I think it would act as a filter alright. I am however trying popped corn in the filter for my charcoal powered lawn tractor. 
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Don…when my cooling rails was plugged I think the gas was hot enough all I would of had to do was put the pop corn in my filter and it would of popped in place…lol
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Hi all, I have used charcoal as a filter medium in a charcoal gasifier and have found it unnecessary. In a charcoal gasifier the main issue is dust and occasionally moisture. Charcoal in a filter may trap some moisture, but dust and moisture can easily be trapped by wood chips, foam or wool cloth. But when you are working with woodgas and the issues of tar, charcoal may be a good thing to use in the filter system. When I get the time to build a wood gasifier, I will definitely be looking at charcoal as a filter medium.
Gary in PA
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I would definitely like too try any extra filtering,if the engine would pull it through a charco ,and then a hay filter,and a wool filter before the intake,too increase the time before the old carb intake needs removeing too de’carbon.